Questions for Poulin

The MLHS summertime interview series will continue with Vice President of Hockey Operations Dave Poulin on Monday afternoon. As always, I will incorporate a few of the best questions submitted by members of the MLHS community. Try to pick your single juiciest question rather than listing off a whole buffet. Submit it in the comments below.

Alec Brownscombe is the founder of MapleLeafsHotStove.com, where he has written daily about the Leafs since September of 2008. He was also the editor of the 2009-12 Maple Leafs Annuals. You can contact him at [email protected]

James Reimer did as much as anyone could have to prove his doubters wrong last year & was the go-to guy, even throughout the playoffs. So, why the vote of no-confidence in him & give up a 2nd rounder, Ben Scrivens & Matt Frattin for Jonathan Bernier when we could have signed a veteran backup for w/out giving up those assets? Surely if you are saying if this is not a vote of no-confidence in Reims then that's a massive overpayment for a backup goalie?

I'd like to know what the current vision for the team is. Speed will beat most teams in the east if the skill is there to back it up. Size is getting bigger, which while important on its own, is to compete more effectively with Boston. Burkie wanted a western style game, and appeared to want nothing of a trap style. Does the same view hold, and does re-alignment have any consideration. Are we physical enough yet? Much was made of certain players like Fratts needing to be physical to keep his game up? Do we have enough elite skills to exploit our size, speed and determination?

I'd like to know how exposed the Leafs playoff chances are if Phil goes down with a season ending injury. Phil the scorer and assist man is irreplaceable, but I fear there would be a brush off response. I'd also like to know his view on resigning Phil, but then I'm sure that would be waived off too as no-one really knows? Finally on the Phil theme, how good could he be with an elite center?

@MLHS_Luke I'm leary of asking about the advanced stat question because their answer will be picked up apart, made fun of, corrected for grammar and generally ridiculed by those who have already made up their mind. .

That said, I'm curious of what stats (advanced or other) are important at the management level (opposed to the coaching level which Cronin already talked about). And generally how and if they account for luck in a past shortened season.

So with Leivo, Biggs, Broll, Carrick, Crescenzi, Percy, Granberg, MacWilliam and Sparks all coming in new and then you have guys who are still just getting established like Mckegg, Ross, and Ryan, thats 12 very young players. Even the teams vets like Abbott, Ashton, D'Amigo, Colborne, Blacker, and Devane are still pretty young and inexperienced. Colborne and D'Amigo are likely with the Leafs. Very young group.

Big line up though with Biggs, Broll, Devane, Crescenzie, Ashton, Granberg, MacWilliam, and maybe Holzer or Colborne...huge actually.

@Burtonboy All the guys that have left, just leaves a spot open for young kids who are trying to gain valuable experience for a position on the big club. The Marlies may not finish as high as last year, but they'll be entertaining and still make the playoffs IMO.

@Burtonboy Dam Thats some turn over, I wonder if there Focus has shifted, Will the Marlies try to compete, or are they running with Kids. This years marlies will have no Kadri, No Frattin, No Gardiner, and Now your Captian most of the Vets Zigo your draw man, etc

Dlb: That will always be the case, in any sport. We can list off so many examples. The intent of the question was first and foremost to get confirmation/affirmation of Management's view of Phil, and then how to realign. At the beginning of last season, Burkie (?) spoke about pairings as opposed to lines. If the key pairings were Bozie-Phil, Luups-Naz etc who becomes the successor and how dmthe lines change. I'm getting int big time hypotheticals but really wanting to get a feel for how Management ranks our forwards. I would think Luups would be looked at to become more of the creator, Naz has the vision but not the experience. Without Phil does Naz go to 1C on a line with Luups and??? Is Clarkson the protector for Naz? I know Poulin isn't going to answer this question the way I like, but I am intrigued in Management's view of the offensive pairings and rankings. Sorry, way too long winded.

For the Marlies to be competitive they would pretty much need Colborne and D'Amigo to play big minutes...maybe not the worst idea to let them have one more run in the AHL as the key guys. Better than sitting in the press box at the ACC.

Ashton Colborne Abbott

Ross McKegg Leivo

Biggs Crescenzie D'Amigo

Broll Carrick Ryan

Devane, Bodie

Blacker Granberg

Percy Holzer

MacWilliam Marshall

Brennan

McIntyre

Sparks

That is one monster of a team...half the team is 6'5 225...OK maybe just a slight exageration, but not too far off.

@Mind Bomb@Burtonboy From the sounds of what I heard and read the focus has shifted to more of a development team. I believe it was Poulin who said we will see 15 -18 ELC'S on that team this yr. Not to slag Eakins in any way because he did a good job but it is a major departure from how he was handling that team from the looks of it .

@B_Leaf@Cameron19@Mind Bomb@Burtonboy Trevor Smith will be waived and should clear. I doubt anyone wants to risk having to pay him 600K should they need to later waive him themselves. I'm pretty sure the idea was for Smith to replace the veteran presence lost in Zigomanis and Hamilton.

@Mind Bomb@Burtonboy@CanuckUKinToronto Looks to be a different approach now. Also we are starting to see all the hard work in the draft start to show progress which we didn't have before. It nice to have that many youngsters that we can now go in that direction.

@Burtonboy@CanuckUKinToronto@Mind Bomb Also, I believe the organization saw some benefit to having a competitive Marlies team, ie. winning culture, while the Leafs were still turning the corner.(not that they are anywhere, yet) As the Leafs improve, it makes sense that the Marlies get younger and focus on development.

@CanuckUKinToronto@Burtonboy@Mind Bomb Morning Nuck, I slightly dis-agree here, winning is a culture, sure the odd man is tough enough to learn getting your ass handed to you every night, but the majority of kids will burn out, We need a good balance, so that our kids can learn how to win, not just how to play. Now having said that, we have a lot of Firsts and second picks coming up. Ross Biggs Percy, amd pair that with Aston Blacker, Mckegg etc, maybe there is enough talent there

@CanuckUKinToronto@Burtonboy@Mind Bomb To be honest I was disappointed the Marlies didn't use Percy,MacWilliam ,Broll,and Biggs more during the playoffs . They hardly played at all. My guess is Eakins was more focused on winning which I fully understand as it was rather obvious he was headed to an NHL job this yr.

@Burtonboy@Mind Bomb Thats what I was thinking, Maybe now you will actually see our High picks, play higher minutes, IE Brad Ross, Biggs, Percy, Leivo I admit, I am very curious as to their roster this year.